HRM 5463 Module 5 Conflict Resolution and Employee Support Strategy Example

Cold Food, Early Check-Ins and Nowhere to Turn: A Conflict Resolution and Employee Support Strategy for a Resort

Student Name

American College of Education

HRM5463: Employee Relations and Performance Management

Module 5 Assignment

Instructor Name

December 13, 2027

Introduction

This course has rebuilt employee relations at Lakeview Pines in stages: an engagement assessment, a performance plan, a fairer evaluation process and a consistent discipline policy. The last problem identified in Module 1 remains. Conflicts between departments go unresolved, especially between kitchen and banquet staff and between the front desk and housekeeping, and employees facing personal difficulties rarely use the support that exists, because few know about it. This paper designs a strategy with three parts: removing the structural causes of recurring conflict, creating a clear path for resolving disputes and strengthening support for employees, followed by how the strategy will be measured.

What Research Says About Conflict and Support

It is sometimes argued that disagreement about tasks helps teams think better. De Dreu and Weingart (2003), in a meta-analysis, found instead that both task conflict and relationship conflict tended to lower both how well teams performed and how satisfied their members were, suggesting that conflict is rarely beneficial and that its costs should be reduced, not encouraged. On support, Rhoades and Eisenberger (2002), reviewing studies of perceived organizational support, found that workers' sense of being valued and cared for by their employer was linked to fair treatment, supervisor support and favorable job conditions, and in turn to greater commitment, better performance and less withdrawal. Both bodies of research point toward reducing avoidable conflict and making support visible.

Removing the Causes: Service Agreements

Most of the resort's recurring conflicts come from how work passes between departments, not from personalities. Banquet servers blame the kitchen when food reaches tables cold; cooks blame servers for late pickup. The front desk promises early check-ins that housekeeping cannot deliver, and housekeepers are blamed by angry guests. The strategy creates two written service agreements, drafted by staff from each pair of departments. The kitchen and banquet agreement sets plating times and a pickup window for each event, with a captain responsible for calling the timing. The front desk and housekeeping agreement limits early check-in promises to rooms marked ready in the system, with a standard message for guests who must wait.

A Four-Tier Resolution Path

Conflicts that remain will follow a clear path, a basic element of conflict management system design (Costantino & Merchant, 1996). At the first tier, employees are encouraged to raise the issue directly with the other person, using a short bilingual guide on how to start the conversation. At the second, either party may ask a supervisor to facilitate a meeting within three working days. At the third, HR offers mediation by a trained staff member from an uninvolved department, with an interpreter if needed. At the fourth, unresolved disputes about policy or treatment go to the human resources manager for a written decision. Employees may skip tiers when talking directly would be uncomfortable or unsafe.

A Separate Route for Harassment and Discrimination

Some complaints should never enter a conflict resolution path. Harassment, discrimination, threats or retaliation will be reported directly to HR or to a confidential hotline, investigated promptly by HR or an outside investigator and handled under the discipline policy from Module 4. Mediation will not be offered for these complaints, because it treats both sides as equally responsible and can pressure the person harmed to compromise. Keeping this route separate protects employees and makes clear that the conflict path is for disagreements, not misconduct.

Making Support Visible

The resort already offers an employee assistance program providing free, confidential counseling, but only nine employees used it last year, and several survey comments showed that employees did not know it existed or assumed it was only in English. The strategy will introduce the program at every new-hire orientation, post bilingual cards with the phone number in every break room and restroom, and confirm with the provider that Spanish-speaking counselors are available. Supervisors will be trained to suggest the program privately when an employee mentions stress, family problems or financial difficulty, as the discipline policy in Module 4 already anticipates.

Practical Support

Support also means help with the practical problems behind many attendance and performance issues. The strategy adds an emergency pay advance of up to $500, repaid interest-free over ten pay periods, for employees with at least six months of service. Housekeeping and banquet schedules will include a shift-swap board, allowing employees to trade shifts with supervisor approval to manage child care and family needs. And the resort will pilot a carpool matching list with fuel cards for employees who share rides from outlying towns, since Module 1 comments cited transportation as a cause of late arrivals in winter.

Peer Ambassadors

Some employees will not approach a supervisor or HR, particularly new hires and those with limited English. The strategy will recruit eight peer ambassadors, two from each of housekeeping, banquets, the kitchen and the front desk, at least half of them bilingual. Ambassadors receive four hours of training and a small monthly stipend to welcome new employees, explain how to use the resolution path and support programs, and pass concerns to HR when an employee asks them to. They do not resolve disputes themselves, but they make the path and the support easier to reach. Ambassadors will meet with HR once a month to share patterns they are hearing, without names, which gives management an early warning system.

Rolling Out the Strategy

The strategy will start in February, before the spring wedding season brings the busiest banquet calendar. The two service agreements come first, since they address the most frequent conflicts; each will be tested for a month and revised at a joint meeting of the departments involved. Mediators and peer ambassadors will be recruited and trained in March, and the resolution path and support programs will be announced at all-staff meetings in both languages in April. The emergency advance will begin with a budget of $15,000 a year, based on an estimate of thirty advances, and will be reviewed after six months to see whether demand and repayment match expectations. Supervisors will receive a one-hour briefing on the new path and on how to refer employees to support.

Measures

The strategy will be judged on five measures: the number of conflicts resolved at the first two tiers compared with those reaching HR; guest complaints about cold banquet food and delayed check-ins; employee assistance program use, aiming to double in twelve months; agreement in the annual survey, among all staff, that the resort cares about their wellbeing; and turnover in housekeeping and banquets, the departments where engagement was lowest. Together with the measures from earlier modules, these will show whether employee relations have improved as a whole.

Conclusion

Research suggests that conflict usually harms teams and that visible organizational support strengthens commitment and performance. The resort's strategy reduces recurring conflict through service agreements between departments, offers a four-tier path for remaining disputes, keeps harassment complaints on a separate route, makes the employee assistance program visible in two languages, adds practical help and recruits peer ambassadors. With the earlier modules, it completes a system intended to make the resort a place where employees in every department want to stay.

References

Costantino, C. A., & Merchant, C. S. (1996). Designing conflict management systems: A guide to creating productive and healthy organizations. Jossey-Bass.

De Dreu, C. K. W., & Weingart, L. R. (2003). Task versus relationship conflict, team performance, and team member satisfaction: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(4), 741-749. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.4.741

Rhoades, L., & Eisenberger, R. (2002). Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 698-714. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.87.4.698